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Thursday, March 29, 2012

[Un]Discovers: Georges le Mercenaire

Georges le Mercenaire is one of the illustrators I admire recently. His Koopa Classic Party has been one of my favourite series in the recent months as he uses his surreal illustration style to create his own version of Mario Bros. This week, I am lucky to have Georges as my featured artist of the week!

Hello Georges, I am glad to have you on my latest edition of [Un]Discovers. So, how did you get into the illustration industry?
I was probably influenced by my friends to get into this industry. I have started by doing posters for theatres or for parties. After a lot of collaborations with diferent little fashion brands and other jobs, I had landed a free lance job working for Lacoste.

That must be fun to work for Lacoste! I find your illustrations to be very surreal and unique, where do you usually get your inspirations?
Everything can inspire me because I' m a very curious person. I read books, comics, graphic novels, and I'm also a big fan of cinemas and obviously i love paintings . From time to time i draw fan art pieces about things I loved when i was child, such as toys and cartoons. I 'm an old video gamer and I think it's a part of my generation's culture. Video game is very important for me and I can say that it inspires me too.

I love video games and I agree, that's is part of our generation's culture. So, how would you describe your illustration style?
I would say my works are very good looking, hahaha! Sometimes my work is classic fanart or geekart , and it can be done with a realistic style or a more cartoonish style. When i do surreal designs, I try to keep a soft realistic style to make the joke more understandable.

I think your surreal design is what caught my eyes the most and that is the main reason I love your works! Recently, I am in love with your Koopa Classic Party series. How did you come up with this concept? Was there any difficulty to rework the classic Mario image?
I'm glad you liked it. It's a combination of two things I love. This project was not that difficult to create, because I wanted to do it since a long time ago. I drew the first sketch two years before I published it on behance and I really took my time to think about it. It came up to me because I'm a fan of Mario as I grew up with this character and it's a kind of tribute to the famous plumber and all the good times he gave to me. I hope you will apreciate the 2nd part of this project that will be published soon.

So there is a 2nd part of this project, now I am excited to see what you will have in store for us soon! Out of all the works you have done so far, which piece is the most memorable to illustrate? Why?
Well, this is hard to say. I would say my last design for Lacoste if I have to pick one. When you work as a freelance illustrator, you have to do what the boss imagines in his mind, and no matter what you like, you do the job and that's all. Hopefully sometimes I can do what I do the best and like.This piece was really cool to do because it was full of details and animals. I loved to draw it and Iwas really excited from the beginning to the end.

The Lacoste piece is a very cool image and it will be good to have it hanging in my room! Last but not least, if you could rework an image of another game character, who would you choose? Why?
Hmmm... Megaman. I think it could be cool to see him in a steampunk style.May be i will try to draw it one day.

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It's trivia questions time!

Pikachu or Mario Bros?
Mario, I m too old to be a fan of pikachu even I love his style

Blue or Red?
Definitely Green!

Sun or Moon?
Moon

Coca Cola or Sprite?
Sprite

Nice or Paris?
The best place in france is Toulouse!

Coffee or Tea?
COFFEE!

Wine or Beer?
BEER!

Winter or Summer?
SUMMER!

PlayStation or Wii?
Xbox360(but i have also a ps3 and a wii)

Lucky number 13 or 777?
13

Thank you so much to Georges for taking his time to answer my questions and I hope you enjoy his works as much as I do. All images are courtesy of Georges le Mercenaire and you can visit his behance page for more images.